Category: Sunday Contentments

Wow, what a weekend. Hubster was gone all last week on a business trip, so I spent the week herding small children and trying not to pull out my hair. He got home so late on Friday night, he didn’t wake up until 10AM yesterday morning, by which time I had already been up 5 hours, recorded a podcast, showered, dressed, fed the kids, and taken them to karate tournament. Pixie got her first shot at getting on the mat, and did a few little kicks for the judges. It was just priceless to see her little dinky butt out there. For participating, she got a medal big enough to qualify her for gangsta rapper status. Meanwhile, Princess didn’t do too badly – she took 3rd place in her weapons kata – but she was distraught that she didn’t do better in other areas. I actually see this as a good sign. Kids who hate to lose work harder to win. Maybe now she’ll be inspired to put in some more practice time, especially if I start practicing with her. Yes, it will be some real mommy-daughter bonding time, where we’ll kick, punch, and karate chop our way to an even closer relationship than we already have 😉

So after karate, we all came home and found the Hubster up, moving and showered, at which point I handed off the kids to him and disappeared into the office for some work. When I emerged two hours later, he handed me a print-out saying we had tickets for an afternoon showing of Cirque du Soliel’s Alegria, and off we went! The show was the most bizarre, beautiful thing I’ve seen in a long time, and I am now ruined, completely ruined I tell you, for all other circuses. Seriously, I will jump through flaming hoops like a trained tigress to see this circus again. Princess was captivated by the whole thing, and I told her that if she practiced, her karate could be that amazing too someday (yes, I know, I like to harp on a theme; we’ll see if it works). Pixie enjoyed the show too, and told me she wants to be the ringmaster for next Halloween, so does anybody have a small top hat I can borrow? For our part, Hubster and I loved the two clowns who pretty much stole the whole show. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard, watching the two of them fight over a paper airplane of all things. It was a lot like watching the girls squabble really, only without the knowledge that I didn’t have to get in there and break them up before they started WWIII and destroyed the house.

Speaking of destroying the house… After the circus, we came home. I went straight back to work, wading through the ever rising tide of e-mail I find myself dealing with these days. Hubster got the kids to bed, and when I was done working, we cuddled up for a little TV and then a little romance, and then we fell asleep…

And then we woke up to an ear-shattering blast of noise that I could not identify. Hubster could however. It was our fire alarm. I immediately jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes (remember, we had had an evening of romance) and raced to the kids’ room. I was already in there reassuring Princess and sniffing for smoke before Hubster even had his pajama bottoms on, which leads me to the conclusion that in the event of a disaster it will be ME who saves us all! Just kidding. But seriously, after 11 years in the Army Reserves and 4 years before that as a cadet, I’ve no doubt had way more practice at springing out of bed, throwing on my clothes, and rushing out the door while still asleep than he ever has. Our security company called right away to see if we were all right, and the fire department was dispatched. There was no smoke, no fire, no carbon monoxide or anything else wrong that we could determine, and the big burly firemen who arrived within a minute of being called determined that we had an old fire alarm that was clogged with dust and needed to be replaced. While Hubster and the firemen sorted that out, I took Princess downstairs to see the fire engine. Pixie slept through the whole uproar, in spite of being the one closest to the alarm when it went off. Go figure. When we finally said our good nights to the fire men, it was 4:30AM, 15 minutes before I was supposed to get up and work on the podcast. You just know I turned off the alarm and went back to bed instead.

So I slept in, and dreamed of the circus, and Hubster got up when the kids did, fed them, and drugged them with TV so he could come back to the bedroom, crawl under the covers and indulge in a little more amore. And now that he’s off to church with Princess, I’m sitting on the couch, finishing up my soft-boiled egg on toast, sipping coffee, reading the newspaper, and watching Pixie dance around the living room to the Alegria soundtrack while I blog about all the little mundane details of my life. I am very content to know today that there are still circuses out in the world that are truly amazing to behold, and I’m also very content to know that the fire department responds promptly to all calls for emergencies, but most of all I am content to know that my house didn’t burn down around my ears last night and that I can still sit on my couch and enjoy my coffee this morning while I blog about the whole thing.

And I think that’s enough contentment to last for a while, don’t you?

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, folks.

It’s been an odd week. Everybody’s been sick with something – flu, cold, walking pneumonia. Then school was closed for Veterans Day and then it rained so damned hard school stayed closed for 2 more days, so I had the screaming meemies running amok in the house for 3 days straight. I couldn’t even get to my doctor’s appointment on Friday morning because some roads between my home and the doctor’s office were flooded out. Ugh. I’m tired, I’ve got lousy post-nasal drip, and I’m all out of sorts. So what do I have to be content about?

A lot of things, actually. And one very big thing in particular. This may sound like a strange thing to be content about, but I found out Friday that after three months of fertility treatments, I am not pregnant. And you know what? I’m good with that. Disappointed, yes. Hubster and I really do want to have another child. We had hoped that the treatments that had allowed us to have Princess and then Pixie would work one more time. They did not. We don’t know why. Everything looked like it should have worked, but for some reason this time around things didn’t go as hoped for.

Again, I am okay with this. Why? Because it means I am finally done with that phase of my life, the time when I struggle to achieve what comes so naturally for most other women. Ten years ago it was a real kick in the teeth to find out that in order to get pregnant I had to undergo expensive and invasive procedures that might or might not work. It was frustrating and painful, and at the time, it was devastating to deal with. Not so much now though. I went through those procedures twice and came out with two beautiful children. And I knew going into it this time that things might not work out. I am forty after all. There is a definite time limit on these sorts of things.

So yes, I am content to be done with this phase of my life. I am content that I will no longer have to spend 3 hours a day, 3 or more days a week, driving back and forth to the doctor’s office for blood tests and ultrasounds. I am content that I will no long have to inject myself with fertility drugs for days on end. I am content that I will not spend days in bed sick as a dog because my ovaries are so swollen and painful I can’t even sit upright. I am content that I will cease to put on 5 or more pounds overnight because those same medications that make me so ill also pack on the water weight like nobody’s business. And I am content that I will never again have to stress over that same awful question near the end of each cycle; am I pregnant this time, or not?

I am escaping what was once my own personal hell. On the upside of things, I am very content to know that I can now move on to other plans. Since I am not pregnant, I can now say yes to certain projects that I would have had to have turned down with a baby on the way. There are novels I know I will have more time to write, paying work I can take on because I won’t have to worry about taking time off nine months down the road. I can get back to a regular work schedule this week and get current projects back on track. And best of all, after the holidays Hubster and I can start looking into adoption because yes, we still plan to have that third child.

The last ten years of my life have been defined by my body’s ability, or lack thereof, to produce offspring. I am finally free of all that. And while this didn’t end in the result I had hoped for, I’ve got to say, it still feels pretty good. In fact, it feels like contentment.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, everyone.

It’s Sunday afternoon and time once again to look back on the week and think about all the warm fuzzy things in my life. Here’s this week’s contentments.

Extra hours in the day – I’ve been busy as all get out today. Productive even. Frighteningly productive. It’s as though somehow I’ve managed to cram twelve hours’ worth of work into eight. I finished up this week’s Heat Flash Erotica Podcast. I put in an hour of exercise. I baked bread. I cooked three dishes for dinner and lunch this week. I cleaned the kitchen! Accomplishing even half of that would have been good for a day’s work. And that’s just today. I wrote over 8000 words for PerNoFiMo, sent off for book reviews, done some drawing… I don’t know how I managed to do so much this week, but I’ve got this giddy happy feeling of many jobs well done (and yes, I know, I’m bragging, but seriously, I am never so productive!).

Cooking – Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve already made bread and a few dishes for lunch and dinner this week. I like cooking everything on Sunday. It means I don’t have to worry about it any other time of the week, and I won’t get caught with nothing decent to eat when I get hungry. I even made healthy food. It’s a miracle!

Toy catalogs – the kids and I have been going through every one we get in the mail, and Princess and Pixie have already made up their Christmas lists. There’s nothing so fun as cuddly up underneath a blanket with two little girls and giggle over pages and pages of brightly colored images of toys.

TV – I don’t watch much of it, but there are now two shows on t(V and Flashforward) hat have got me interested enough to sit down and turn off my brain for a bit. I think I need that, just an hour or two every week to shut down my higher-level cognitive functions and become a vegetable. It certainly helps to lower my stress level when I’m upset about something.

New pajamas – Hubster and the girls went shopping and came back with new PJs for me, including flannel penguin pajamas and a fleecy tunic decorated in skulls and hearts. My family loves and understands me 😉

There’s more, always more, to feel contented about, but I’ll leave the list at that this week. Hope you all are having a wonderful Sunday, and feel free to share the things that make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

It’s 10PM on Sunday evening. Normally I get this post written by 11AM, 2PM at the latest, but that just wasn’t happening today.  We had a very busy morning, with appointments that required we be up and out the door at the crack of dawn.  Then afterward, since I didn’t feel well, I laid down and went to sleep for a bit.  Four hours later…

Anyway, it’s been a muddled day, and now I have a sick child on top of everything, to boot.  But still, I have that usual peaceful easy feeling, and here are the reasons why.

The Hubster – I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I love that man of mine.  He knew I didn’t feel well, and so he shooed me to bed for a few hours after we got back home and let me sleep until I woke up on my own.  He took care of Princess, who was sick, and Pixie, who’s been a little stinky fart for the last few days, pulling every trick in the book when she thinks she can get away with it (she can’t!).  Why Hubster is still married to me after all these years, I’ll never know.

Cooking – It’s something I don’t do often enough.  I stink at cooking on a daily basis, prefering to spend an hour or two on Sunday prepping dishes for the coming week.  This afternoon, after I woke up, I made New England baked beans, apple caramel nut bread, and pumpkin souffle.  The pumpkin souffle is something I make every year after the annual pumpkin carving party we go to.  My souffle wilted shortly after I pulled it out of the oven, but we weren’t going to eat it until tomorrow anyway, so that’s okay.  It’ll still taste good. I already know the bread is mouth-wateringly perfect, and the beans seem to be coming along just fine (they’re finishing up in the slow cooker as I type this). This week will be a week of good meals!

Challenges – I set them for myself, and I strive to conquer them.  I busted ass the last two weeks getting the new site set up, and while it’s not perfect yet, it is functional and I think it looks pretty good.  I’m giving myself a pat on the back for a job well done.

Doodling – I managed to squeeze in a bit of drawing time this week, and turned out some fun doodles.  I want to fill up a sketch book with all sorts of kookie drawings.  Wonder how far I could get toward that goal by New Year’s?

Disney movies – I know you all know I’m no fan of Disney princesses, but today a shelf-full of DVDs kept the Princess quiet and content on the couch when she needed to get some rest.  She’ll get more movies tomorrow, in between naps and being read to and comforted.  My girl feels pretty poorly, but so long as she’s got one of her favorite flicks to watch, she’s okay, and when she’s okay, I’m okay.

And that’s it for this week.  Hopefully next Sunday I’ll be back to my usual routine, but even if I’m not, it’s all okay anyway.  Night ya’ll!

It’s Sunday afternoon. I’m on the couch with a cup of joe and my netbook. I’ve got four kids screeching and howling like a pack of wild monkeys in my living room. Oy vey!

In spite of the noise and the squabbling, I’m having a good day. Here’s my list of what gives me that warm fuzzy feeling at the moment. It’s mostly a list of creative endeavors that have paid off recently.

New website – okay, so only the blog is up, and it’s nowhere near it’s final configuration, but still, it looks nice, and I think if I keep working on it, in another week or so I will have finally set myself up to have all my disparate blogs rolled into one. That will be quite an accomplishment.

Pumpkin carving – we went to a pumpkin party last night. In theory, the kids were supposed to help scrape out the pumpkin guts. You know that didn’t happen. While the kids ran amok, a dozen adults got down on the kitchen floor (Oy, my knees!) and scraped out pumpkins. Then we consulted with the kids on what to carve on the pumpkins, and because no sane adult there was keen on handing anyone under the age of 30 a knife, we sent the kids away and carved the designs. I drew the designs on the girls’ pumpkins free form, after looking at a couple of stencils, and I have to say they came out pretty good. They’re sitting on the porch right now (and Princess’ is currently infested with ants. Oy!).

Cooking – I’m going to indulge in some cooking today, making a pumpkin souffle. I only make souffle in October, after I’m done scraping pumpkin guts out. It’s going to be a messy job, since I still haven’t sorted and washed everything (I just sort of threw the bag of guts in the fridge when we got home last night). But the souffle will taste wonderful, and it will be well worth the effort.

T-shirts – Target had some cool Halloween t-shirts on sale this week, so I picked up a couple to add to my collection (yes, I collect t-shirts). Very spooky, retro themed graphics on bold colors. Very freaky-chic looking. My kinda clothing, you know? I love my t-shirts.

Ugh. The girls in the living room are all arguing, necessitating the need for me to get off the couch and referee. But that’s okay. In fifteen minutes, they’re all going to someone else’s house, and I am content with that.

The weather outside isn’t quite frightful, yet, but man is there a nip in the air! I’m snuggled up on the couch in one of my favorite sweaters, contemplating throwing one of my mom’s crocheted blankets over top of me for additional warmth. The tip of my nose is cold and my fingers are a little clumsy. Methinks it may be time to tell Hubster to turn up the heat. I wonder if he will interpret that message to mean, “Sit the kids down in front of a movie and carry me up to the bedroom, you steamy hunk of stud-love!” One can only hope. In the meantime, here’s this Sunday’s contentments:

Healthy children – Pixie came down with strep throat earlier this week, and boy was that ever fun. Not. Her temperature got as high as 104 degrees at one point, and she had more than a few crying jags and melt downs because she didn’t feel good. She stayed home from preschool two days, spending her time in a bean bag chair in front of the TV. Both evenings, she crashed on the couch, a sure sign she didn’t feel well. That kid doesn’t nap for anything! But now she’s up and running around, keeping pace with Princess, and in general driving me nuts.

“Mama! I’m sick!”

Mommy moments – one night, while Pixie was sick, I woke up at 3AM to hear her crying in her bed. I got up, took her temperature (this was when it hit 104), gave her a little Children’s Motrin and brought her into bed with her father and I. She could never quite settle down, but didn’t want to go back to her own bed. At one point, she turned to me in the dark and asked, “So how was your day, Mama?” “My day was just fine, sweet heart,” I replied. “That’s good,” she said, and then she finally decided she wanted to sleep back in her own bed.

Reading to my kids – I found my copy of “Where the Wild Things Are” this week and read it to Princess. She was fascinated with the artwork, and had all sorts of questions about the monsters and Max., then wanted to know if she could write a book of her own. She’s already written a couple of books, collections of drawings with some words scribbled in them. We staple them together, but I think the next time she does one, I’m going to scan it into the computer and make it a PDF to send out to family and friends. The Princess can claim she’s “self-published!”

Speaking of being published… Yes, work accomplishments are qualify as contentments in my opinion, and I’m very contented to note that this week I had four stories published with Logical Lust. What makes this especially sweet is that these are some of my best work ever, but two of the stories were usually rejected by anthology editors because the tone of the stories is rather tragic. Apparently not many publishers like to take a chance on tragedy, even when it’s well written. However, Logical Lust was more than happy to work with me, so these stories and two others (those two are comedies) are now available for sale. I hope they do well!

Local festivals – we missed the Greek Festival this weekend, due to the fact I wasn’t feeling so well yesterday morning, but we did get out to the local Egyptian Fest. It was much smaller than the Greek Fest (which is huge), and we got there pretty late, but we managed to pick up some food to take home to eat. Actually, what we did was go through their cafe line and wipe the whole thing out! The food was good, and exactly what I needed that evening. We had a friend over, and spent the evening eating falafels and kashta and stuffed grape leaves while watching the Virginia Tech game (VT lost, but oh well). A wonderful evening, if I do say so myself.

There’s lots of other things to be content about, like the art projects the kids and I have been working on, and the costumes we’ll be sewing later this afternoon, but I think I’ll stop here for today. I want to curl up with a hot cup of tea now and just enjoy a few moments of quiet.

I love the month of October. Being sick the two weeks, I haven’t really been able to appreciate it as much as I would have liked, but then I realize I would rather have been ill in October when the weather is cool and pleasant and conducive to relaxing than be ill in July when the weather is so damn humid around here you can practically swim through air. The later would have made me really miserable.

But right now, I’m feeling better, maybe on the mend finally after battling a weird illness that has left me fatigued, nauseous. I’m sitting at the dining room table. Princess and Pixie are giggling over sandwiches and singing nonsense songs to each other. One song in particular sounds like a very warped version of Aerosmith’s “Dude Looks Like A Lady,” and I can’t stop chuckling as they howl that song at the top of their lungs. Obviously, I’m in the contentment zone, so let’s get started with what’s making me feel all warm and fuzzy this week.

Halloween decorations – my next-door neighbors are BIG into Halloween, to the point that they build this giant display every year. It’s a mix of hand made and store bought items, sometimes the store bought stuff having been customized in my neighbor’s workshop. Right now, they’ve got a huge graveyard in their front yard, complete with a fake stone entryway and wrought iron fence running around the entire thing. There’s ghosts and skeletons galore inside this thing, and I know there’s still more stuff in the garage waiting to be added. I plan to post pictures of what they’ve done on Friday as a Freaky Friday post.

Halloween decorations, part 2 – I found at Michael’s for mummies made from plaster wrap and Styrofoam, so this afternoon the entire family is going to set up on the back deck and put together some mummies for our yard. Our decorations can in no way compete with the neighbors’ but I don’t care. They’ve had years to build their display, and we’ll take years to build our own. Princess, who is obsessed with Egypt, is particularly looking forward to this afternoon.

Jogging – After my third knee injury, I never thought I’d jog again. It was just too painful. But Wii Fit included a jog-in-place activity that I could do, and somehow, I’ve eventually worked my way back to jogging around the neighborhood. I’m not very fast, and my endurance could use some building up, but I’m amazed that I can actually do this. October, with it’s lovely crisp fall weather, is the perfect time for jogging too.

Princess and Pixie – there’s nothing like listening to your kids laugh while they’re goofing around. I’m constantly amazed at the things these two girls do. Last night, Pixie (who is three) lectured us on how Columbus discovered the West Indies, and then launched into a spiel about the solar system that had me in stitches. She looked so serious with her hands on her hips, going on and on about planets and suns and moons and Mother Earth. I have to remember to thank her pre-school teacher for that. Meanwhile, Princess has developed an interest in drawing anime style characters, although she doesn’t realize they’re anime yet. I’ve got plenty of how to draw books, including manga and anime, and will be cracking those open later this week to do some drawing with her. She’s gotten pretty good!

Grilled cheese sandwiches – Hubster just handed me one fresh out of the pan. It’s GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

Fall clothing – I hate wearing shorts, and all summer long I pine for my jeans. While I love my t-shirts, I miss my long-sleeve tees. Today, I’ve got on a proper fall outfit and I love it.

Good books – I’ve read a couple of amazing books recently. I can’t recall the authors off the top of my head, and I’m too lazy to look them up at the moment on Amazon, but I highly recommend the following titles – Soulless (by Gail Carriger, who’s name I can actually remember), Of Bees and Mist, and Drood (a sort of fictionalized horror story about the last five years of Charles Dickens’ life and how he came to write The Mystery of Edwin Drood).

And that’s about it for this week. Have a nice day this Sunday, and enjoy your contentment.

Once again, it’s Sunday morning, but today I’m far afield, about one hour from home and enjoying a light repast at a Panera’s. I’m on my own this morning. Hubster, good Catholic that he is, took the girls to church, and me, good Zen Buddhist that I am, said, “Good luck with that!”

I’ve not had the funnest of weeks this past week. Some sort of weird bug hit me, and I spent a lot of mornings in bed thinking maybe I was dying. No fever, congestion, or vomiting, but I was completely wiped out and had a headache that wouldn’t quit. It’s wasn’t a really bad headache, just one persistent SOB that would not leave me alone. So I spend quite a lot of time in bed this week, while the Hubster picked up after my sorry ass. I have to say, I love that man of mine. So this morning’s contentments are dedicated to him, the man who puts up with moi! And we’re starting with…

Hubster’s cooking – he made seared tuna steaks last night with Sechuan green beans. The girls both turned their noses up at it while I devoured everything on my plate and then some. The man can cook. In fact, up until the past couple of years, he did all the cooking as well as all the grocery shopping. What a guy!

Hubster’s way with kids – I have to admit, I’m a nervous Nellie when it comes to letting the girls run amok in the neighborhood. I can just imagine all sorts of things going wrong. Hubster lets them venture farther afield than I do. They enjoy the freedom, they learn a little responsibility, and I learn not to be so much of a tight-ass when it comes to letting kids do what kids do. Yesterday, Princess happily spent the day outside on her own, riding up and down the street on her bike. Up until some snot-nose little boys decided to start picking on her, she was happy as a lark and doing pretty good on her bike. I’m going to have to let her and Pixie run loose more often (oh, and I explained to Princess that little boys are scum-eating, stinky, smelly, fetid, rotten, puss-drooling little creeps which made her laugh; welcome to the Battle of the Sexes, kiddo!).

Hubster’s way with kids, part 2 – when Princess came home crying telling us one of the aforementioned little cretins threw rocks at her, I sent Hubster out to handle the situation, because I just knew I was gonna kill me some little boys. Cool, logical engineer guy that he is, he confronted the boy in question, and when he got a “he-said she-said” story, he let the little boy know that if he ever saw any rocks being thrown at anyone, he was going to handle it by talking to the parents of everyone involved. Me, I would have just rained down blood and hell fire and obliterated the entire neighborhood. But I’m hormonal and not feeling well this week, which is why I sent out the Hubster instead 🙂

Hubster’s manly home improvement skills – the man is a genius in more ways than one. He pinches every penny until it screams, always getting more than his dollar’s worth, and one of the ways he does this is by doing the home repairs himself. He researches every project and then confidently goes down to the hardware store, gets what he needs, and sets about fixing whatever needs fixing. I don’t think I can recall a single home improvement project he’s done that has not gone well. Some have gone on longer than expected, like the rennovation of our downstairs bathroom and the retiling of our kitchen floor, but that’s only because the man works mad hours at his J-O-B.

Hubster’s mad computer skillz – the man builds computers as a hobby. He builds really good computers, too. Occasionally, we have the odd error or the need to fix a problem caused by the operating system, but he understands computers inside and out. When he doesn’t outright build a computer, he researches thoroughly before he buys. As the lucky recipient of his computer skills, I now own 3, count them, 3 computers, including the little netbook I’m using right now to blog. I’m a computer addict, and I could not survive without my genius husband.

Hubster’s giant brain – did I mention he’s incredibly, stupendously smart? Like he really is a rocket scientist smart? My dad always said it’s just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as it is a poor man. I told Dad it was better to fall in love with a smart man than a rich man, because the rich man might get stupid with his money, but the smart man never would. I have not yet been proven wrong on this.

Hubster’s never-ending patience – the man very rarely blows up, and he’s put up with a lot of shit from me over the last… good lord, has it been 19 years? (That would be 3 years of dating and engagement plus 16 years of marriage.) Why he’s still around, I don’t know, but he’s been here through thick and thin, and has supported me in every half-assed endevour I’ve gotten involved in. A lesser man would have either killed me or himself long since, I’m telling you.

And I could go on and on. The fact is, you don’t stay married to a man for 16 years if he’s not special, and Hubster is. He’s got the kids this morning, and has pretty much given me the entire week off to recuperate from my mysterious illness. He’s making London broil tonight, and I’m pretty certain we’ll be enjoying a quiet afternoon watching the game today, cuddled up on the sofa while the kids run amok around us. Is there anything more I could want? Seriously, I don’t think so.

Have a good Sunday everyone, and I hope you enjoy the day with the ones you love.